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Edith's Streets

This blog records notes about London (and Greater London) streets - what the buildings are, what the background is. These pages have been compiled over many years and from many sources - its not intended to copy from other people's work.Each post represents a square on the Ordnance Survey grid -and the vast majority of information is culled from map based source material - Ordnance Survey, A/Z, etc.

On some inner city squares only a quarter of each square is done because of the volume of material involved

Please add your comments and corrections - I am sure there are lots of mistakes - and my idea is to build up a correct record interactively

Red- it is (hopefully) there nowBlue - its interesting but its goneNo colour, same as the text - don't know. needs to be verified

The name comes from a ‘flash’ on
Cuffley Brook installed to be tapped to fill the New River if needed. The lane
runs on the line of the eastern boundary of Enfield Chase

Cast iron Aqueduct.This is a two-span, cast-iron trough on
brick piers. It was built 1821 to carry the New River over the Cuffley Brook
and to bypass the end of the loop. The ironwork was cast by Hunter and English
of Bow.

The
Cot. This was originally a chapel and school built for people in the area by the building of which was in part financed by the owner of
Claysmore House, Mr J. W. Bosanquet. He
was the founder of the Protestant Association, established to counter the
Oxford Movement,

New River

The
original course of the New River ran westwards through Whitewebbs Park as far
as the lake, and then turned south eastwards to cross what is now Flash Lane.

Wildwood EstateLake. The owner of Claysmore House in the 19th, Edmund Harman, bought a loop of the old course of the New River and wanted to make a lake of it and the Cuffley Brook. The cast iron aqueduct in Flash Lane was built to achieve thisCuffley Brook. As the brook leaves the
lake in the water is the remains of a stone trough– this was built by Robert
Mylne built in 1775 to replace the timber ‘flash’ aqueduct which took the brook
over the New River and which had been built by Myddleton on the original old
course.

Iron marker. North of the lake
with 'NR Co.' on it

Bridge at the west end of
the lake. This is a 19th ornamental footbridge of multi-coloured bricks laid
unevenly for a ‘rustic’ effect.

The stream from the north used to carry
water from Whitewebbs Pumping Station but it is on private land.

Whitewebbs Park.

The land was part of Enfield Chase, but
previously common land. It was given by Elizabeth I in 1570 to her physician,
Dr Huicks, plus Whitewebbs House. After the house was demolished in the late 18th
the estate was bought an agricultural innovator, Dr Abraham Wilkinson. In 1931 the estate was bought from Sir Duncan Orr-Lewis
by Enfield Urban District Council and Middlesex County Council and made into
the public golf course. In 1955 the district council acquired the estate
to form Whitewebbs Park

A
house called Whitewebbs was in the area by the 16th owned by Robert Huicke
the doctor who built a conduit for water supply to his it.This house was later associated with the
Gunpowder Plot since Guy Fawkes visited there the night before the plot. It then had a succession of owners. It
eventually passed to the Garnault family and then Henry Bowles, after which it
was demolished.It is said to have been near
Myddelton House possibly on the site of the current Guy Lodge.Whitewebbs
House.An estate called Whitewebbs farm was
bought by Dr. Abraham Wilkinson, in the early 19th.He built the core of the existing house in
1791, which became known as Wilkinson’s Woods.It was later enlarged by Charles Stuart Robertson for Henry Cox Wilkinson as a dressed up French
Chateau. It was bought by Lady Meux in in 1904 and Frederick Orr Lewis in 1911. By then it stood in 40 acres, had 40 rooms and its own electric generator. In the 1930s it was used as a
Middlesex County Council old people’s home for 70 old men.They had a bowling green in the grounds and could
look at the Middlesex County Council Golf Course, next door ‘giving them an
attractive outlook’. It is now a
Toby Carvery

Whitewebbs Golf Club – the club house is to the south

North Lodge - Victorian
Gothic building

Conduit house. Remains from 16th

Weiron the old course of the New River
in a Shrubbery west of the golf course.

Tree lined ditch. Marks the line of the
old course of the New River

Whitewebbs
Wood. Modified ancient woodland in a corner of Whitewebbs Park. The wood lies
on clay acidic soil on a South facing slope. Dominant species are coppiced oak
and hornbeam plies alder, mature and ash with some wild service tree.

Filter
bed for sewage

Whitewebbs Road

SloemansFarm

Congregational Chapel. Registered in
1861 by the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion. This closed in 1959 but the
site is identifiable west of the King and Tinker pub.